As automobiles become lighter, smaller and more fuel-efficient, it has become commonplace for manufacturers to eliminate spare tires as they tend to be heavy and oftentimes difficult to store. Many motorists are unaccustomed to changing a flat tire and will often times rely upon a towing service when confronted with a tire puncture. However, many times towing services are unavailable or a motorist cannot afford to wait until they can be scheduled. Some manufactures sell vehicles with run-flat tires but they tend to be expensive. As a consequence, it has become more and more frequent to provide kits capable of performing temporary repairs through the introduction of sealant and compressed air to enable the vehicle operator to at least drive to a repair facility.
Virtually all two-part systems for repairing tires employ compressors which perform the dual function of providing compressed air through a tire valve stem as well as to the interior of a sealant container. Systems of this nature are fabricated from rather elaborate machined parts which include a sealant container intake for receiving compressed air and output for introducing sealant to a multi-way valve driven by pressurized air emanating from the compressor. This results in reliability issues as the finely machined parts tend to clog and are otherwise costly to produce. As the machined parts clog due to hardening of the sealant, the general reliability of such devices is compromised particularly if the motorist does not need them for an extended period of time. Furthermore, such devices are incapable of using off-the-shelf self-contained aerosol sealant as they generally require dedicated sealant containers having the ability to receive pressurized air from an external compressor. If such a device could use off-the-shelf self-contained aerosol sealants, the sealant source could be periodically replaced to ensure ready availability of sealant when needed. Also, the use of a self-contained aerosol sealant would enable a motorist to introduce sealant to a tire under repair even if no electric power was available to operate the device's compressor.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a tire repair and inflation device which overcomes the limitations inherent in prior devices of this kind.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a tire repair and inflation device which includes a disposable, self-contained aerosol sealant source which operates independently of the device's air compressor.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a tire repair and inflation device containing a disposable, self-contained aerosol sealant source which can be readily refreshed thus maintaining the viability of the device during long periods of nonuse.